Utility lights are commonly used to complete a task where typical illumination (daylight, overhead lighting, etc.) is not available. This situation can occur in an outdoor area simply because it is dusk, night, or dawn. This situation can also occur in areas of a home, business, or industrial setting that are not typically occupied and/or simply contain an inadequate amount of lighting for the task at hand (basements, crawl spaces, HVAC enclosures, attics, garages, closets, etc.). This situation can also occur during the initial construction of a home, business, or industrial setting where the overhead lighting has not been wired up or otherwise installed. Painting, pluming, HVAC, drywall, electrical, and any other general contractor may require additional illumination during construction.
Existing devices have typically used incandescent, halogen, or other high discharge lamps for these utility lights, which suffer from a number of drawbacks including large amounts of heat generated from the lamp, easily damaged glass or filaments in the lamp, low efficiency, short life span, and a largely directional nature of the resulting radiation pattern.